Miss World reporter gets death threats

November 27, 2002|By Edited by Lara Weber (lweber@tribune.com)

LAGOS, NIGERIA — The deputy governor of a largely Islamic state in northern Nigeria called on Muslims to kill the Nigerian woman who wrote a newspaper article about the Miss World beauty pageant that sparked deadly religious riots.

While state officials in Nigeria cannot issue fatwas--or religious edicts--the deputy governor, "like all Muslims," considers the death sentence against Isioma Daniel "a reality based on the teachings of the Koran," Zamfara state Information Commissioner Tukur Umar Dangaladima said Tuesday.

Islam's holy book 'states that whoever accuses or insults any prophet of Allah ... should be killed," Dangaladima said. Anyone who killed Daniel would be "a martyr who will go to heaven," he said.

More than 200 people were killed in rioting over the Miss World pageant, which eventually relocated to London last week.